You Snooze, You Lose

I'm sure it's happened to most of us. It's happened to me with pens both vintage and modern. However... I seem to have the worst luck with Bexleys.

I have a Bexley 56 (not 58!) in blue-and-black ebonite with rhodium-plated trim. Pretty cool, huh? Well... I really wanted the red-and-black one with gold trim, but they were sold out before I knew it. And although I've gradually (very gradually) warmed somewhat to the blue one, it remains a dark and not terribly attractive color, and definitely does not have that classic (I might even say iconic) 1920s ebonite look. It's been hard to get past that.

A while back Bexley made a "torpedo" pen that was designed to accept Sheaffer Imperial nib-and-feed units. That sounds like a match made in heaven. Those Imperials have amazing nibs, and the tapered section is both easy to clean and very comfortable to my grip. Those vintage pens do seem a bit dainty by today's standards, so the Torpedo looked like the best of both words. However... By the time I found out about them, my preferred color was already gone. And then I dithered. And then I ended up getting none at all.

Now I see that Peyton Street Pens have a limited edition Bexley that also uses Imperial nibs, although the style is very different from the Torpedo. Of course I have to get one. My first choice was black with gold trim. Oh... Well of course, that's the one that's already sold out. That figures.

I don't know when those pens were first introduced. I vaguely remember seeing them some time before, but for some reason they didn't make much impression. I guess it took a while to put two and two together and realize that, yes, that was something cool that should be in my collection. I am not accustomed to buying pens in a snap. Usually I can take a while to ruminate, and other things may come first, and it doesn't matter that much. With these Bexley limited edition pens, it matters.

The Internet makes for a whole lot of lost opportunities. I see all too many items sold or out of stock. I even decided to buy an extra Conklin pen because I couldn't bear the thought of it being discontinued and unavailable should something bad happen to the one I use.

Have to laugh though. The only thing is to be at the computer with hundreds of tabs open 24/7 with a really fat wallet. I much rather be using at least some of my pens.

I recently came across a near mint montblanc jules verne limited edition ballpoint pen (on a local classifieds website) boxed with papers for 200$. ignored it for a day, went back the next, but it was sold.

I tend to rationalize those situations by telling myself that the lost opportunity just means that something better will come along sooner or later. I berate myself for a couple of minutes, then move on.

Or, as my wife tells me, "It's just a pen." Funny, though, when I tell her that "It's just a <insert deal that got away from her>", she's not so understanding.

When something I think I want gets sold before I have made up my mind to buy, I experience a moment of chagrin before remembering that I have more pens than I can possibly use, and that each pen I buy means some other pen is left not used. The only one I am sorry I didn't buy is the Pelikan M625 (or M whatever) Place de la Concorde from the Cities series. It reminded of a beautiful sweater a girlfriend once wore.

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

An old gentleman - in the proper sense of the word - that I worked with used to quote a proverb to me:
"Three things return not to a man.
The spoken word, the speeding arrow and the lost opportunity."
Worth remembering, especially regarding pens!